THE first signs of battle are found outside Blue's house. Known to some as ''Fox Dundee'', Blue works on Neds Corner and lives in a cottage on the property. His war trophies, 800 fox tails, cover the cottage's front walls in neat rows, each furry ornament a small victory over the pests that have reigned at Neds.

But fox shooting is just part of the campaign to return Neds Corner, the state's biggest privately held conservation property, to its natural state after 153 years of pastoral enterprise.

A decade ago, Trust for Nature bought the 30,000-hectare site, an hour west of Mildura, for $2.5 million. It seemed an inspired buy. But the job of repairing the former sheep station was so daunting even the trust had doubts.

Neds Corner

Photographer Angela Wylie travelled to Neds Corner, 100 kms west of Mildura, Victoria. The property has been run by the Trust for Nature conservation group for ten years. Photo: Angela Wylie

In 2002, the property was, in parts, a red dust bowl where nothing held the terracotta earth down. The saltbush and bluebush were patchy. Many of the belah and Murray pines were gone. Foxes and feral cats had wiped out native marsupials. Sheep had trampled the property to the brink.

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But 10 years later - in a testament to the bush's resilience and the hard work of volunteers and managers - Neds is staging a remarkable and beautiful recovery. Led by property manager Peter Barnes and his wife Colleen (with help from Blue), the effort to revive Neds has involved the destruction of 10,200 rabbit warrens, the annual culling of 30 wild pigs, 200 feral cats and 40 hares, and the planting of 60,000 trees. Seventy kilometres of fences have been torn down. But 42 kilometres have gone up to help native plants regenerate.

A 600-hectare block is now feral animal proof. ''The last rabbit in there took us a week to get,'' says Mr Barnes, pointing to one paddock from the wheel of his ute. ''It was very cunning.''

The property's management has also required deft neighbourhood diplomacy, as locals thought that turning decent pastoral land over to private conservation was, frankly, a little nuts. Relations were particularly tested in 2010 when locusts laid a nest of eggs at Neds kilometres long, threatening local crops.

The most obvious shift is that Neds is now like a Serengeti for the animals of the Australian coat of arms. The twitching ears of kangaroos - reds and western greys - pop up everywhere and large mobs of emus, up to 60 strong, sprint across the

Most changes at Neds are not obvious to the untrained eye. The property runs along a spectacular part of the Murray River and its red gum forests, but most of it is a huge, flat saltbush plain, stretching across 27-kilometres to the heat-shimmering horizon. It looks dusty-green, sometimes mud-brown. It's scrubby like a Bronte moor but is no place of long, contemplative walks. It is unforgiving and hot.

Several new species have been discovered on Neds, including a new type of native truffle, named Agaricus colpeteus in honour of Colleen and Peter Barnes. A scientific audit found one of the largest huntsman spiders seen in Australia (20 centimetres wide) and 17 species of spiders new to Victoria, as well as new moths.

About 150 plant species were recorded on the property for the first time. In 2011, Mr Barnes also spotted a southern hairy-nosed wombat ambling along, the only time the species has ever been seen in Victoria.

These rare things and the simple things - such as native grasses growing over the bare patches - excite Mr Barnes. There's a sense of making amends with the land.

The Neds Corner earth yields other things, too: old boots, tin, glass and wood from its long pastoral history. From its 13,000-year Aboriginal heritage, the bones of those who lived off the Murray's bounty are found throughout the property and carefully protected. There are also middens and, in the more ancient soils, the bones of Australian megafauna that once roamed these parts.

For Trust for Nature, a legislation-backed conservation group that helps covenant private land to protect remnant vegetation, perhaps the most difficult things on Neds are the old pastoral buildings. These include a rippled-iron overseer's cabin and a web-draped woolshed, which is falling into disrepair. The homestead has been renovated, but the older homestead, built with a proper English garden, is thought to have burnt down in the 1950s.

The trust has discussed opening Neds to tourism. But, at least for now, it will restrict access to trust supporters, university students and scientists, fishing and bird enthusiasts, and a few public open days each year.

Some Mildura locals - such as chef Stefano de Pieri - would like to see more properties like Neds established, properties that balance the environmental sensitivities with tourism activities. Soon the opportunity might arise: a couple of neighbouring properties look like coming on the market.